Derrick Lang has been with the North Dakota State University athletic department since 2016. He was named executive associate athletic director for development in September 2024 and oversees the day-to-day operations of the development staff.
Lang was hired as the Team Makers executive director in June 2019. He is the primary liaison to the Team Makers board of directors working on strategic planning, membership, volunteer training, special events, and hospitality and transportation partnerships in support of NDSU Athletics.
In his first four years, Team Makers increased annual giving totals from $6.98 million to $7.90 million through cash donations, trade for goods and services, and other revenues. He has assisted in raising more than $47 million for facility renovations and new capital projects.
Lang has developed and implemented a strategic plan with Team Makers for annual giving in support of scholarships for student-athletes and operational expenses for the athletic department. He also secured scholarship endowment gifts to help grow the overall athletics endowment to over $101 million.
As part of his work with Team Makers, Lang has executed season ticket holder reseating procedures and coordinated public relations efforts including golf tournaments, auctions, socials, luncheons, annual giving events, alumni events, and a gifts-in-kind program including the Transportation Team, providing courtesy cars for NDSU coaches and administrators.
Lang, a former Bison football player, returned to the NDSU athletic department in 2016 spending two years as the assistant director of marketing and fan engagement and one year as the director of external relations/corporate partnerships. He cultivated new and existing corporate partnerships generating more than $100,000 for NDSU Athletics, developed and executed sponsorships, and was involved with group ticket sales and growth of the Junior Bison Club.
A native of Wausau, Wis., he joined the Bison football team as a preferred walk-on in 2009 and went on to play 57 of 59 games in his four-year career as a running back and special teams standout. He was part of three Missouri Valley Football Conference championship and NCAA Division I FCS national championship teams from 2011 to 2013.
Lang was a marketing intern for the NDSU athletic department in the summer of 2013 and also served a five-month role as interim equipment assistant at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse in 2014. He spent two years at Northern Illinois as a graduate assistant for marketing and game experience working with NIU's women's basketball and softball programs and football tailgating activities.
Lang graduated from NDSU in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in business management and earned a master's degree in sport management at Northern Illinois in 2015. He and his wife, Alex, reside in West Fargo with their three sons.
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